


Quiet

by quantumoddity



Series: Jupeter Dads AU [2]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Carte Blanche Family, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Other, Pregnancy, Self Indulgent As Fuck, Trans Peter Nureyev, Trans Pregnancy, just some soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25171066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: A quiet morning on the Carte Blanche as Juno and Nureyev face a big change in their lives
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Series: Jupeter Dads AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824808
Comments: 10
Kudos: 120





	Quiet

The Carte Blanche was never quiet. 

An old ship, it constantly creaked and grumbled around the joints, the thick metal skin made brittle noises in the impossible cold of space around them and the vents were always making that low humming noise that everyone on the crew was grateful for because it meant the oxygen calculator was working. 

It was never silent, not even now even in what Juno’s instincts and the glow of the SimSun lights told him was the early morning. Not even when he was the only one awake apparently, no one else in the family room or the kitchen, soft snoring coming from the closest bunk which was Rita’s. 

He’d always been one for waking up earlier than anyone else, earlier than was really advisable. He’d always been the twin up first, tiptoeing around the creaky floorboards he’d memorised so he wouldn’t wake up Ben in the top bunk or Sarah in her own room. Those few hours had been precious to Juno for a reason he couldn’t name, maybe just because it was the only time he truly had for himself, when he didn’t need to be constantly aware of other people and didn’t have to gear every action towards helping them and being the responsible older brother he was supposed to be. 

But thinking that made him feel selfish. So he’d told himself he didn’t know why he liked those still hours where it felt like he was the only person on Mars, when he could make himself a cup of hot tea and take it out onto the fire escape and watch the sun come up. 

And then it became a habit. So here he was, thirty years and change later, awake at an ungodly hour that had no sun or shift in light to tether itself to, just the endless punctured darkness of deep space. And he decided to make breakfast, that way there would be some for everyone when they woke up. 

The habit of taking care of other people hadn’t died either. Even when his brother and mother had.

Juno frowned, not wanting these unpleasant thoughts to crowd his head, not this early. He focused instead on cracking the eggs into the pan, stirring them slowly with butter so they formed gelatinous clouds, ready to be reheated for when everyone started trickling in. Their next job was a good few days of travel away so this was as close to a vacation as a company of thieves would ever get and no one would be in a rush. It would be nice to have a hot breakfast ready and waiting on a day like that, a day where no alarm had gone off and every hour that stretched ahead was yours alone. 

So bread came next, slicing it carefully for big stacks of toast. The long haul stasis bread wasn’t great, chewier and tougher than anything made planetside but it could taste just as good when you dipped it in eggs, sprinkled it with cinnamon and fried it up. That was real vacation, no school, no work food. 

He was halfway through his stack of bread when he heard the first footsteps on the tiles, echoing strangely in the metal arteries of the ship. Juno expected Buddy or Jet, who saw every day as a work day whether there was a job in sight or not but he knew who he wanted it to be. And it looked like he was in luck. 

Nureyev wore their comforter wrapped around his shoulders, an old shirt of Juno’s that he would never fathom why he’d bothered to bring aboard with him and a pair of shorts. His feet, bare arms and legs would be freezing touching the cold metal but he’d been getting so hot lately that Juno didn’t think he’d care. He wasn’t wearing any jewellery save two of Juno’s string bracelets on one skinny wrist, or even his glasses, no make up and his hair was sleep matted and sticking up wildly. 

He was the most beautiful thing Juno thought he’d ever seen.

“Good morning,” he kept his voice low, Nureyev was clearly still waking up, “Little early for you?”

Nureyev yawned, showing his pointed incisors the way a cat would, ambling over and slumping against Juno, “I woke up and you weren’t there. I missed you…”

Juno smiled and inhaled the sleepy, powdery scent of his hair fresh off the pillow, “I didn’t go far.”

“Too far,” Nureyev murmured, kissing his shoulder. 

Juno pulled the pan off the heat and turned to hold him properly, slipping a hand past the comforter to touch the secret he knew he was hiding there, the skin tighter than it should be between his hips, the little knot riding low in his stomach. Their secret. Well, theirs and Vesper’s, who’d obviously seen it on Nureyev’s last physical scan and nearly had a heart attack. But she’d promised not to tell anyone else until they were ready.

Juno knew they were just two bundles of formless cells, he’d been doing his research and promptly making himself nauseous when his research went too far. But he was already picturing two impossibly tiny babies, fit to nestle in the palm of his hand, with Nureyev’s always bright eyes and his dark hair, as beautiful as Bianca. In his head, they looked a little like he and Ben had, when they were very small. 

Nureyev smiled at his palm on his skin, “They’re awake. I think they get up when I do.” 

Juno pouted, playfully and also kind of genuinely jealous, wishing he could feel them too, “Well, tell them I say hi, would ya? Go curl up on the sofa, I’ll bring you a plate over and you’re gonna eat every bite.”

Nureyev pulled a face but relented. The one thing Juno and Vesper had ever agreed on was making sure he abided by the millions of rules for pregnant people. 

“Yes ma’am,” he hummed, nudging Juno with his hip as he passed. Making Juno blush was a sport to him and he needed to keep his skills honed. 

Juno watched with a fond smile as he went to collapse on the sagging, ratty old sofa that had sat in the family room for as long as any of them had lived aboard. Nureyev tired easily these days and he could often be found nodding or outright dozing on that sofa, even in the middle of meetings. They were going to have to tell people soon, he was worried Buddy was going to fire Nureyev if he did it again.

He was slightly too tall for it, his feet left dangling over the arm of it. Juno grinned, wanting to kiss those skinny ankles and then move up. But not in the family room. Not since they’d been caught in any case. 

He turned back to the food, finishing up then piling up a stack of the french toast, all the crispiest and darkest pieces where the syrup had started to caramelise. Nureyev liked when sweet was just starting to turn bitter. He said it was better that way. And tea as well, there had to be tea. Two cups of the decaffeinated stuff that was closer to flavoured water than actual tea but Juno had promised Nureyev he’d stay on it as long as he had to, as an act of solidarity. 

Juno brought it all over as carefully as he could, managing not to spill anything, setting it down on the coffee table. As soon as the scent of vanilla and cinnamon entered his nose, Nureyev’s eyes opened lazily and he grinned. 

“You’re a real gem,” he sighed, reaching out but not for any of the food, just to wind his fingers through Juno’s, “Being so good to me…”

Juno smiled and brought the fingers to his lips, kissing them lightly, looking up at him with a single dark gold eye full of love, “It’s my absolute pleasure.”

Nureyev was a miracle worker, Juno knew that much. He’d seen him disappear on command, he’d seen him fight his way out of the tightest corners, wear different faces and entirely new personalities as easily as other men would wear a new jacket. He’d seen Nureyev do a thousand things that would make anyone gasp. 

But ever since they’d realised he was pregnant, since that day after a job where they’d all gotten a few scrapes and had been crowded into the infirmary, when Vesper’s face had gotten so still and eerily calm and she’d asked everyone but Nureyev to please leave the room, when Juno had stalked the hall outside the infirmary for twenty minutes before he was pulled in to see a stunned, grinning Nureyev and those tiny blurry shapes on the screen. 

Ever since then, Juno had been so taken with seeing his dear thief perform such a human miracle. Nothing that would make anyone gasp or stand and stare, nothing with such a theatrical flourish Nureyev was used to. This miracle was performed slowly, with early mornings spent being sick and deep shadows under his eyes and aches and twinges. This miracle was messier and more painful and scarier. But god, when Juno looked at him, he felt like his heart was just going to burst in his chest. 

Because it reminded him that Nureyev wasn’t a magician, he wasn’t an angel, he wasn’t a man who could weave starlight or pluck the planets from the sky. He was a human. And he was no less amazing and wonderful and beautiful for that. 

Plus, it helped shake off the lingering sense of intimidation Juno still got when he looked at him sometimes. As fun as that could be under the right circumstances. 

“What are you thinking about?” Nureyev was sat up now, nibbling on a piece of toast delicately with those pointed teeth of his that made Juno feel funny. 

Juno laughed gently, squeezing the fingers he still held. 

“Just thinking about how much I love you.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this purely for my own enjoyment in this difficult time but if you like it too, I'd love a comment! Also I'm @mollymauk-teafleak on Tumblr if you want to know more about their kids!


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